1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to goods and service providers and service facilities, the rating and evaluation of goods and service providers and service facilities by customers, particularly at point-of-sales locations. The present invention also relates to reward systems for customers or clients as part of a point-of-service/point-of-sale transactions with client/customer input. The present invention also relates to systematized reports and signals to the primary service provider based upon those ratings at point of sales locations.
2. Background of the Art
Rating or reward systems are fairly common within the commercial and service business fields. The majority of rewards and ratings are directed towards the customers or clients and the information is used by the servers or businesses themselves to help evaluate individual clients or client groups for service or sales targeting. Typically data is collected on individual customers/clients and their patterns of sales and business utilization patterns are evaluated, ranked and/or rated to provide the business with information on how sales can be increased. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,168 shows a computer implemented system for storing and manipulating customer purchase information received from a plurality of sources, the computer system comprising a storage device for storing the customer purchase information and a processor for placing the customer purchase information, a method for organizing the customer purchase information comprising the steps of: creating an organizational structure in the storage device, wherein the organizational structure comprises a plurality of categories, each category comprising a plurality of sub-categories arranged in a hierarchy; receiving the customer purchase information; and placing the customer purchase information into at least one of the plurality of categories and the plurality of sub-categories using the processor. Mailers (as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,520,542) are also used to obtain information and/or provide awards.
Other consumer ratings systems exist whereby consumers can register their opinions about particular service businesses over the Internet. Unfortunately, these systems allow consumers to volunteer ratings for businesses not recently, or indeed never, used by the particular consumer. Still other electronic ratings systems are tied to specific “e-commerce” transactions over the Internet. However, most local businesses reside in the “bricks and mortar” world.
It is equally important for service and sales providers to appreciate and determine the customer's/client's perception of the point-of-sale or point-of-service business relationship. Collection of such information has been difficult to obtain and has not tended to be reliable. Such collection systems have included cards left on restaurant tables that are voluntarily completed by customers, hand-out sheets given to attendees, postcards provided along with sales or service provided to customers or clients, personal debriefing by sales personnel, focus groups, mailed out questionnaires, telephone surveys and the like. Good faith responses to such solicited reviews are traditionally at a rate of less than 2%, and the reviews tend to be either a) heavily weighted towards unfavorable response, as the unfavorable results motivate response more than expected good service/sales results or b) highly favorable where the service provider is performing the interview and filling out the rating sheet.